The Director of Industrial Relations is charged with responsibility for labor management, national negotiations, mechanization, safety and health for all divisions of the union, and the administration of the collective bargaining agreement.

There’s more to being a progressive union than achieving and enforcing a contract — and that’s where the Human Relations Department comes in. Our programs and benefits inspire members to participate in the union and give them a sense of inclusion, contribution, and ownership.

The Maintenance Craft is a diverse and complex division of the APWU. In addition to the three national officers who work at the union's headquarters in Washington, DC, representation is provided by nine Maintenance National Business Agents (NBAs) and three all-craft NBAs.

The Motor Vehicle Craft is composed of APWU members who transport mail and maintain postal vehicles, and includes MVS Clerks, who work in Vehicle Maintenance Facilities and in Transportation Departments in mail processing plants.

The Support Services Division represents APWU bargaining unit members at Information Technology/ Accounting Service Centers, Operating Services facilities, Mail Equipment Shops and Material Distribution Centers, as well as professional nurses employed by the Postal Service. The Division also includes APWU-represented workers who are employed in the private sector, including mail haul drivers and Mail Transport Equipment Service Center employees.

The Northeast Regional Coordinator is responsible for union activity in parts of New York and New Jersey, and Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

The Western Region Coordinator is responsible for the union's activities in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, and American Samoa, Guam and Saipan.

The Deaf/Hard of Hearing Task Force is a forum for APWU members to address their unique problems and concerns in the workplace, union, and society. Established in 1988 by an amendment to the APWU National Constitution, its goals include: better communication, better representation; better training, a better workplace, a better union, and building friendship.

APWU POWER (Post Office Women for Equal Rights) is the women’s committee within the American Postal Workers Union. It unites women, with their special concerns, yet works within the framework of the national APWU organization.

The APWU National Postal Press Association (PPA) provides APWU communicators with a wide range of assistance, information, and educational programs concerning the publication of union newsletters and media.

Labor History Articles

January-February Labor History Milestones

(January 2017) (This article first appeared in the January-February 2017 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine.)

Strikers marching during the 1912 “Bread and Roses” textile strike.
Photo courtesy of the Lawrence History Center

January 5, 1869 – The nation’s first labor convention of black workers was held in Washington, DC, with 214 delegates forming the Colored National Labor Union (CNLU). It was less than four years after the end of the Civil War and black workers were barred from being members of other unions. Nevertheless, they sought to improve their working conditions.

The union consisted of a variety of occupations, including mechanics, engineers, artisans, tradesmen and tradeswomen, all seeking equal representation in the workforce. Notable members included Frederick Douglass, who was elected union president in 1872. His newspaper, The New Era, was the official publication of the CNLU.

January 11, 1912 – The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) organized the “Bread & Roses” textile strike of 23,000 workers, including immigrants from many different countries, in Lawrence, MA. A new state law changed the work week from 56 hours down to 54 hours per week. The mill owners docked the pay of the workers for the lost two hours, while at the same time speeding up the looms to make up for lost production. Textile workers walked off the job shouting “Short pay!” when they realized their weekly pay was cut.

Workers demanded a 15% wage increase, double pay for overtime work and a promise of no retaliation against the strikers.

The community rallied around the strikers. The story of the “walkout went viral in newspapers around the country, American laborers took up collections for the strikers and local farmers arrived with food donations,” wrote author Christopher Klein (TheStrike that Shook America, History.com).

To help sustain the strike and its mass picket lines, families sent hundreds of their children out of Lawrence to New York and other states, where they stayed with family members or sympathetic working families.

Almost two months later, on March 2, a Congressional committee began hearing testimony about the strike after U.S. President Taft was compelled by the determination of the strikers to investigate. The testimony of the men, women and children about their brutal working conditions and small pay moved the legislators.

The mill owners settled shortly afterward, on March 14. Strikers received all they asked for, and with their victory raised the standard of living for workers across the country. By the end of the month, 275,000 textile workers in New England saw increases in their pay as other industries followed to avoid strikes from their own employees.

February 16, 1926 – Twelve thousand New York furriers belonging to the International Fur and Leather Workers Union began a 17-week strike. Strikers varied in background, including people of Italian, Jewish, Greek and African-American heritage, but they knew that by acting together they were in a better position to bargain and fought together for a 5-day work week with no reduction in pay.

Through the leadership of Ben Gold, strikers joined with members of various unions and allied organizations, including the New York State Federation of Labor, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union.

With the strikers’ unity and support from allies across the state, the employers saw they could not win and finally agreed to a new contract on June 11. The contract gave an unprecedented benefit package to the workers, including an end to overtime from December through August, time-and-a-half overtime pay for half-days from September to November, a 10% wage increase, 10 paid holidays and a ban on subcontracting.

It was also the first contract the union negotiated that included a 5-day, 40-hour work week, which in turn created more jobs and less unemployment. The strike strengthened the unity between the New York City and state-wide unions for decades to come. With that solidarity, they would all soon win the benefits the furriers had gained in their collective bargaining agreements. 4